Blood pressure-lowering medication may prevent serious conditions such as strokes, heart failure and heart attacks even in adults with normal blood pressure, new research suggests.
The benefits of treatment were similar regardless of the starting blood pressure level, in both people who had previously had a heart attack or stroke and in those who had never had heart disease, the study found.
Researchers say the findings have immediate and important implications for global clinical guidelines that typically limit blood pressure-lowering treatment to individuals with high blood pressure.
Lead author Professor Kazem Rahimi, University of Oxford, said: “Our findings are of great importance to the debate concerning blood pressure treatment.